A dozen years ago, Sam was going to give Dee Dee his class ring. Instead, Dee Dee ran off with a drug-dealing lout and vanished from his life.

	Alicia Silverstone plays a free spirit in "Candles on Bay Street." Click photo for larger image. 'Candles on Bay Street' When: 9 p.m. Sunday on CBS. Starring: Alicia Silverstone, Eion Bailey, Annabeth Gish.

Later, Sam met Lydia at veterinary school and married her. The lovebirds settled in his northern Maine hometown, setting up practice with the cutest animals outside of a petting zoo.

When Dee Dee, now a candle maker by profession, moves back to town with her 11-year-old son, Trooper, the relationship between Sam and Lydia becomes unsettled, fostering jealousy and lies.

At first, this Hallmark Hall of Fame production, based on a novel by K.C. McKinnon, seems to be the story of a love triangle. About a third of the way into the show, I figured out that it was going to go the tear-jerking route of "Terms of Endearment" or "Beaches." Until the movie goes awry in the final scenes, it's a good show.

As Dee Dee, Alicia Silverstone (of the movie "Clueless") is charming, and she looks and twinkles much like Meg Ryan pre-cosmetic surgery. Eion Bailey and Annabeth Gish are appealing as Sam and Lydia, and young Matthew Knight is a real trouper as Trooper.

Filmed in Nova Scotia, this is a world of traditional family values, where everything is beautiful in its own way, love conquers all and life goes on. For many viewers, it will be welcome, sentimental holiday viewing, as long as a box of Kleenex is within reach.

When Dee Dee begins a candle-making class in her home, half the town signs up and falls in love with her, including the previously wary Lydia. The former free spirit has achieved sainthood.

The best vignette has Sam and his assistant, young Trooper, delivering a foal with OB chains -- not your typical TV scene. Another good scene has Polly Bergen, as the veterinarians' secretary, singing "You've Got a Friend" at a party to an ailing townsperson.

Unfortunately, the final scenes fall apart in over-the-top mawkishness. I winced as Trooper delivered a funeral eulogy that was meant to be touching, and I wondered why the director, John Erman, didn't reshoot a scene in which Bergen flubs the words to the second verse of "Amazing Grace" at the same funeral.

"Candles on Bay Street" isn't one of the best "Hallmark Hall of Fame" productions, but it's one of the most typical.